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I scraped an exterior with lead based paint. Help.

526 Views 9 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  Respec
I don't know what to do now. I've picked up most of the paint chips and the scraping is done. I'm new and ignorant and I messed up. I didn't realize lead paint was as bad as it is.

I scraped quite a lot of paint off the house, although it's not the biggest project. Should I go get tested for lead poisoning?
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I don't know what to do now. I've picked up most of the paint chips and the scraping is done. I'm new and ignorant and I messed up. I didn't realize lead paint was as bad as it is.

I scraped quite a lot of paint off the house, although it's not the biggest project. Should I go get tested for lead poisoning?
You’re fine. Lead poisoning in adults from one project is HIGHLY unlikely. Occupational over-exposure is typically the only way to get lead poisoning from paint chips as an adult.

However, children 6 and under are the at-risk demographic (and pregnant women), should not be allowed to ingest chips, or be exposed to airborne dust, etc...
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You’re fine. Lead poisoning in adults from one project is HIGHLY unlikely. Occupational over-exposure is typically the only way to get lead poisoning from paint chips as an adult.

However, children 6 and under are the at-risk demographic (and pregnant women), should not be allowed to ingest chips, or be exposed to airborne dust, etc...
Thank you for bringing me back down to earth lol. As far as clean up goes, I'm vacuuming up as much as I can, but there's still tiny pieces. How much should I be concerned with lead contamination? Is this dangerous for occupants of the home?
Holland already answered your last question. Paint chips, unless ingested, are not as dangerous as airborne dust. If you didn't do a bunch of sanding then you should be ok. Are there little kids on the property? How old is the house? Did you confirm lead with a test? Either way, when doing extensive prep, you should have plastic a minimum of 8 feet out from the wall.
Thank you for bringing me back down to earth lol. As far as clean up goes, I'm vacuuming up as much as I can, but there's still tiny pieces. How much should I be concerned with lead contamination? Is this dangerous for occupants of the home?
It could be, especially if young children, any pregnant women, or any woman planning to become pregnant may be there.

And at the risk raising your level of concern once again, you should be aware that informing the owners of what happened (if you haven’t already) might not go well. They could react as if it’s no big thing, or be extremely upset. Regardless you need to be up front with them and then do everything possible to mitigate the potential harm.
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Holland already answered your last question. Paint chips, unless ingested, are not as dangerous as airborne dust. If you didn't do a bunch of sanding then you should be ok. Are there little kids on the property? How old is the house? Did you confirm lead with a test? Either way, when doing extensive prep, you should have plastic a minimum of 8 feet out from the wall.
It's 1940s definitely lead paint (original paint and siding under one previous layer of latex paint) and the couple is older with a son in his late 20s living with them. I did no sanding, just scraping. I'm taking the RRP class next month so in the future I'll definitely be using plastic 8ft out. I'm new in business (1 year), been painting for 6 years and had a previous employer (had his RRP) who treated lead paint jobs like regular exterior repaints. Hence my lack of taking lead paint seriously until I did some more research after the fact.
It could be, especially if young children, any pregnant women, or any woman planning to become pregnant may be there.

And at the risk raising your level of concern once again, you should be aware that informing the owners of what happened (if you haven’t already) might not go well. They could react as if it’s no big thing, or be extremely upset. Regardless you need to be up front with them and then do everything possible to mitigate the potential harm.
Luckily they already know it's lead based paint and they're okay with me moving forward. I'm just concerned about their safety at this point. I'd like to be able to do an appropriate level of clean up, but I'm not sure what that entails after scraping has already been done. There wasn't much scraping that had to be done as it had been painted previously. I actually found lots of paint chips under first layer of dirt indicating to me that it wasn't painted by someone with an RRP previously. They're an older couple with an adult son so I'm not too worried about that aspect. I just want to do proper clean up so I can do the job right and never make this mistake again.
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If an inspector sees you, you may be fk'd. You are supposed to have an EPA lead handling license and documentation. Depending where you live and how far they take it, they will make you remove 6-12" of soil, then replace it. And of course you are on the hook for all the costs. Lesson learned, a. test beforehand b. lead, pretty much say no c. know how to protect yourself and client and do it right.
If an inspector sees you, you may be fk'd. You are supposed to have an EPA lead handling license and documentation. Depending where you live and how far they take it, they will make you remove 6-12" of soil, then replace it. And of course you are on the hook for all the costs. Lesson learned, a. test beforehand b. lead, pretty much say no c. know how to protect yourself and client and do it right.
Thanks for the heads up. I figured as much. I guess all I can do is just hope and pray at this point. I spent all day vacuuming the top layer of dirt and got all the paint chips cleaned up with a HEPA vac. I'm not going anywhere near a lead house ever again. Even after taking the RRP class.
I just finished renewing my license a month ago. I feel whether you work on lead projects or not, in our field, it is worth taking the class so you understand the potential hazards and risks to yourself, employees, and customers. NO level of lead in your blood stream is healthy, although it is true that as an adult, a small amount of exposure is not going to have much of an impact like it will on young children and the elderly. If you don't feel sick, I would imagine any exposure you had would be quite minor and your body will naturally flush it out. The bigger concern is the contamination to the soil and area. You did the right thing by removing as much as possible, but if anything happens in the future related to lead, you are still on the hook. I would just make sure the site is as clean as possible, get it painted, and move on. When I started in 1991, lead was being talked about, but there were no classes or much help to address it, and no one that I could see was really doing anything differently. I am sure I scraped and sanded plenty of lead houses with just an N95 dust mask on as my only protection and I never felt sick. Some days, in the middle of summer when it was hot, the dust would stick all over us because of the sweat. I also don't ever recall doing any type of work like that that happened to have young kids around. According to the instructor, back then, 15 micrograms of lead in a child was considered severe poisoning. Today, severe is 5 micrograms. I would just also point out that any drops you used around the house to collect chips while you worked are considered contaminated. DO NOT bring them to another job, otherwise you risk contaminating someone else's property. Probably a small risk, but the cost of replacing the drops will be far less than the cost associated with a lead issue.
Just as a side story, since you scraped, odds of contaminating the neighbor's property are probably pretty slim unless the houses are on top of each other. We were working on a job a few years back and the contractor next door was old school disc sanding an obvious lead house, and then using a leaf blower to blow the dust off everything. He contaminated the whole neighborhood. You could see the plume of dust wafting across the street going everywhere. I didn't want to be the guy to report him to the authorities, but I did mention it to the homeowner who had kids in case they were concerned. He just shrugged like it was nothing, so nothing happened.
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